Musik von Harmonia or Deluxe?

Deluxe all the way

i have always been a deluxe leaner, as well, but musik von harmonia is sooooooo good too

musik von harmonia

I was just listening to Deluxe a few weeks ago. What a glorious album, those hopeful synths combined with primitive drum machines!

the one with "Dino"

I haven't listened to Deluxe much, it has actual rock sounding stuff doesn't it? Music Via sounds like earth music reflected back by alien spacecraft

it shares some rock conventions but it's more rockmusik von kraftverk, if kraftwerk were more majestic

musik von harmonia has watussi so

deluxe has a top-5 all-time record cover

I remember someone describing "Immer Wieder" as being sung by zombies and I've never been able to stop thinking about that when I hear it

For me this is obviously Deluxe, as good as the other record is, Deluxe is just good vibes all the way through

Deluxe

"Musik von Harmonia" seems more collaborative, whereas "Deluxe" starts off as Rother and turns into Cluster towards the end.

Deluxe is my choice, but this is nearly like picking my favorite child.

have always leaned deluxe but this is tough as hell tbh

live 1974 also outstanding

:|

Deluxe
all time top 10 record for me

can't make my mind up here.

musik von

Going with Musik Von.

the 'von' signifies that musik von harmonia is nobly born, so

"Deluxe" starts off as Rother and turns into Cluster towards the end.

That's exactly why I love it so much!

You have already voted for watussi in this poll and cannot vote again for watussi

Love them both, but Deluxe was my intro to the whole glorious genre.

deeeeeeluxe

although i have a harmonia LP i like more that i can't remember the name of

Documents 1975

^^ so good

tracks and traces also

Documents 1975

― flappy bird

agreed, i thought about posting this myself but didn't want to be challopsy

i haven't heard documents 1975! i will give it a good listen tonight.

i have written and deleted several different posts about Watussi and how it works (or doesn't) as the opening song of musik von. i love it, and it still sounds utterly alien today so i imagine it must have been mindblowing to hear in 1974. it's also very repetitive, even by harmonia standards, and kind of functions as a palate cleanser to whatever was playing beforehand.

i have identified watussi as a good song for beginning drummers -- the reliable repetition gives the buoyance and freedom to try improvising a little, and it's not too fast
and there are no words

and it is awesome

cannot choose between these
we are blessed with both so we are the real winners of this poll

Deluxe (Immer Weiter), on the other hand, is one of the best opening songs...OF ALL TIME. i think i said 'majestic' upthread but it's hard to think of something more fitting. it makes me feel like a king even when i'm sitting around drunk in my underwear. it's a long song, but the harmonia repetition creates such a vivid sense of scale that the length feels wholly necessary. it's hard to believe that it's still the same song by the time the main theme returns just before the 9 minute mark, but it brings the goosebumps every time because it's like slowly descending down the grand staircase back to the main hall of a mansion. there's a heavy autobahn influence here, too, in the way that the underlying rhythmic beat mainly comes from synths bouncing between octaves, and the descending synth squelches marking the ending and beginning of key motifs.

krautrock is kind of a weird genre to pin down because of the huge variety of styles, and maybe it's silly to even attempt to do so. but if someone wanted to know what "krautrock" sounded like i think Immer Weiter might be the best example. it's got a little bit of everything that defines the genre.

cannot choose between these
we are blessed with both so we are the real winners of this poll

OTM

Z + LL OTM

These albums are so fucking good. Man!

I am in the 'we are blessed to have both' camp but hey, it's Deluxe :)

Deluxe > Live 1974 > Musik von Harmonia > Tracks and Traces is how I break it down to an extent

I haven't heard Documents 1975 yet

https://i.imgur.com/nsWs1zt.jpg

I had MvH for ages before I got Deluxe (when they were only available as Japanese import CDs in Rough Trade), so I guess that's the sentimental choice but yeah, how can you do this really?

it makes me feel like a king even when i'm sitting around drunk in my underwear.

top reason I shouldn't vote = I even like the Harmonia & Eno remix album

Z, I love that series of photos so much.

https://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a6/Sprad/Forst_zpsfaffbcd1.jpg

👍 Would chill.

Have been meaning to listen to these for years but getting around to it after seeing this thread pop up. I'm getting up there in the years and finding a sound/music that feels utterly fresh/alien to me is so rare, but boy, the second "Watussi" started playing I had such a happy grin through that hole album.

that's great! i generally think that one of my most useless "skills" is the ability to identify the general time period of a song, tv show, or movie based upon various characteristics. Watussi, for me, is notably timeless. it really does sound fresh and contemporary, even today. usually the presence of electronic elements in a song just makes it even easier to identify the time period. in this case the drums are treated in a way that makes them sound retro even before most bands even considered using electronic drums. it's just bewildering.

what's also crazy is that the same can be said of cluster's "Hollywood", released in the same year! they were on a fucking roll in 1974

consider this run

Harmonia: Music von Harmonia (1974)
Harmonia: Live 1974 (this rules)
Cluster - Zuckerzeit (1974)
Harmonia: Deluxe (1975)
Neu!: Neu! 75

(also neu! 2 (73) and sowiesoso (76), depending on your affection for those albums)

there are ppl that don’t like sowiesoso? I prefer it to zuckerzeit, personally.

A lot of people agree with you. I don't.

I do. I find the noisier tracks on "Zuckerzeit" take me out of the moment whereas "Sowiesoso" is utterly transportive for it's entirety.

feels similar to music von vs deluxe to me. both clearly great records, one a little rawer, more primitive, maybe colder. techno vs house. maybe i’m just a softie.

my terrible secret is that i left Sowiesoso as an option on the Run of Greatness just because i just haven't listened to it as much as the others. for some reason, in my first wave of listening to all this stuff back in the day i had some trouble tracking down the mp3s for sowiesoso. so sorry, sowiesoso

personally i think the first two cluster albums are a lot better than zuckerzeit and sowieso and everything by neu

i suppose that's why i prefer musik von harmonia so strongly to deluxe

deluxe just sounds like guys in a band

i mean there's a lot of music by guys in a band that i enjoy, don't get me wrong

it's just that if i want to hear music by guys in a band i don't generally reach for the krautrock records and vice versa

Not sure what that means.

it just means i would rather hear sculptors of cosmic noise rather than hairy dudes playing stretched out rock music

I thought that was roughly what you meant, but I don't think any of Cluster is like that though. I suppose Can is right out then?

blessed hedge

https://i.imgur.com/kYfRoe7.jpg

if i'm going to listen to rock music, i would rather it not sound as though sung by zombies

i know the prevailing wisdom is that these guys were at their best when they were balancing their atonal impulses with their musical aspirations, coming back down to earth, whatever

it's just coming back down to earth sounds like a boring trip to me

earth music reflected back by alien spacecraft

^^ brimstead put it well, i keep coming back to this

If Deluxe won't win i'd lose faith in humanity. But it will so i won't.

xp i like can a lot! it probably doesn't make sense, but i don't really think of can as existing in the same musical space as cluster / harmonia / neu ... i think of them more as a prog group, despite their german origins.

They're not really in the same space, true, they're more like, er, hairy dudes playing stretched out rock music!

sometimes! but they had their share of concise moments too.

maybe stretched out wasn't the right word, though.

how about ... enervated? they just get so hushed around 74-75. zuckerzeit and sowieso sound like you're waking up in a dewey meadow after an alien abduction, and these guys are trying to play their krautrock reaaaally softly to avoid disturbing the fawns and baby ducklings. deluxe is like you're awake now and you've had your coffee but you're listening to your krautrock at half volume and through a sweatshirt wrapped around your head because you don't want to aggravate your hangover.

personally i think the first two cluster albums are a lot better than zuckerzeit and sowieso and everything by neu

cluster 1 + 2 are very cool but I file them as kluster records mentally, almost like a different band

sowiesoso is GREAT

my personal favorite Cluster is Grosses Wasser though
Isodea!!

love this zuckerzeit and sowieso sound like you're waking up in a dewey meadow after an alien abduction, and these guys are trying to play their krautrock reaaaally softly to avoid disturbing the fawns and baby ducklings

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

i'd never heard of these records or this band before karl mentioned them last week. krautrock is a vast universe and i only know a few small parts of it. these are good! first listen i'd probably lean toward musik von harmonia but i plan to listen again today

voted mvh

huuuuge family tree of this stuff (actually just the kraftwerk branch)

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/41/38/bf/4138bff442e91cb84ff4a7669153dad4.jpg

wow that's cool, I didn't know Tietchens was in Liliental. been pretty obsessed with his work lately.

Love that Liliental album.

love that family tree! i had totally forgotten that kluster grew out of an earlier era of Tangerine Dream

Love that DIE (b)ENGEL DES HERRN is a dead end. Still looking for a physical copy of that one that I can afford.

Sowiesoso is neck and neck with deluxe for me, probably my two favorite German records

me too

they're all something

CLUSTER / Moebius & Roedelius solo & group recordings 1970-1986 poll

+ three archivals released since 2011. and it's arbitrary to leave 'Ludwig's Law' & 'En Route' off the list since they were recorded 1983 / 1986

Cluster - Konzerte 1972-1977 (2017)
Roedelius - Tape Archive 1973-1978 (2014)
Moebius / Plank / Steffen - Live in Mexico 1986 (2013)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Pleased with these results, though I expected it to be closer.

It's great there's 53 of us with an opinion!

I reviewed the Live 1974 album again - I like it but it doesn't burrow into my brain like the rest of their work.

I have Roedelius - Selbsportrait I coming in the mail soon and am working my way through all his Sky albums.

Maybe time to revive this? I've not had enough kosmische/Krautrock in my life recently!
KRAUTROCK Listening Klub! - New Albums Every Wednesday

A friend made a very tender short film, John Was Trying to Contact Aliens, which has just gone up on Netflix. Harmonia feature in a sehr, sehr komisch way. Check it out!

this is honestly a very difficult question

I think I always preferred Deluxe, but for no particular reason.

Deluxe. About half of the first album gets on my nerves for some reason.

Despite the fact that I like Kluster/Cluster and Neu!

Deluxe I think

musik von

― J. Sam, Wednesday, January 2, 2019 2:16 PM (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Forever and always. Deluxe is great too though

something I love about Musik Von is it's got such an embryotic nature to it. reminds me of some of those early James Ferraro albums where it's like the greatest music you've ever heard is playing through a wall somewhere. "Sehr Kosmisch" is definitely one of those, especially the second half where this proto-techno beat starts to come in. and then "Sonnenschein" which is like a Teletubby war march. it's all great but I think the reason I prefer Deluxe is the track "Ohrwurm" which I think is a bit of a bore. also "Hausmuzik"...it's pretty but doesn't add anything, exactly. do love "Ahoi!" though, especially the last minute

now to track down that 1974 live album!!

74 Live is incredible, feels incredibly fresh every time i play it.

No thoughts on the Reworks bonus disc that came with the 2024 RSD reissue? It's on Spotify, giving a spin now. So far pretty cool!

Missed this, cheers